Common Poker Variants and Rules

Poker belongs to card games family and has many variations. All poker variants differ in how cards are dealt and how game is played. Three most popular poker variants popular in international casinos are: Draw poker, Stud poker, and Community card poker.

Draw poker-In this game player’s are dealt a complete hand secretly, i.e. hidden. After dealing this hand other cards are dealt face up. Card game that belongs to this category is Five-card draw.

Stud poker- In this game each player receives both face-down and face-up cards, in multiple rounds. Common card games belonging to this category are Five-card Stud, Seven-card stud.

Community card poker- In this game each player gets an incomplete hidden hand along with few face-up cards. Common cards games belonging to this category are Omaha Hold’em, Texas Hold’em.

Some of the common rule variations of all these poker variants are: High-low split, Lowball, Kill game, Wild cards, Twist, Stripped deck, and community cards. In high-low split highest and lowest hands split the pot. Low hand requires a qualifier. For example: Low hand must have five cards with ranks less than or equal to 8.

In low ball the lowest hand wins the pot. Sometimes aces are counted low, and sometimes they aren’t. Common lowball variants are 2-7 Triple draw and Razz.

Kill game is a fixed limit game in which a player who wins two pots will get his stakes doubled. Twist is a special round in which players can buy cards from deck. Extra money should be added by the player if he requires another card. Stripped deck is used in the beginning of poker i.e. it was used when poker first came into existence. In beginning poker cards were only 20. Stripped deck was played in past when poker was popular in Spain.